MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

Final from Shirk:

Illinois Wesleyan 79
Wheaton 71

That should wrap up the conference title and the #1 seed for the Titans.

[GoPerry]

Final from Shirk:

Illinois Wesleyan 79
Wheaton 71

That should wrap up the conference title and the #1 seed for the Titans.

Great game.  Titans made more plays and shot the ball better.

It is rare when both Adom and Cruickshank are cold from outside but this was one of those.  A lot of that had to do with Titans tight defense giving up very few clean outside looks.  They were a combined 0 for 8 from three.  All of their points were on drives to the basket and free throws.  It's great when Alioth can make threes like he was but that's not the strength of the team.

Alioth foul trouble and having to sit a lot gave Leritz free reign.  And 0 in white really delivered in spades.

[iwu70]

Great game, very high-quality D3 match-up at the Shirk tonight.  The Matt Leritz show.  He just refused to lose tonight.  A great game, making a statement for MOP for the regular season, IMHO.

For WC:
Alioth 21 and 7, but with the foul trouble (He was frustrated with the officiating, as I think pretty much everyone was . . . ).
Adom 18 (5 TOs)
Cruickshank 13 and 8
Anthony 9

For IWU:
Leritz 31 and 8, stretching the floor with 2 treys, and not denied in the post area with wonderful moves, drives to the rim, all evening.
Noe 17 -- some key treys early
Mitchell 11 and 9, with the dagger trey with about 1:30 to go. 

IWU:  49%, 53% from three, 80% FTs   WC:  42%, 27% from three, 85% FTs

Key to the game was IWU's tough half-court defense -- and strong scoring and rebounding from Leritz and Mitchell.

IWU up two games now with two games to go . . . at home vs. NCC and @Augie to end the regular season.  Looking very good at 19-4, 12-2.

A big big crowd, making The Shirk rock about the best it has all season. 

Thanks to the Titan band, cheerleaders etc. -- all the seniors there.  And to the Titan team seniors:  Noe, Lambesis, and Leritz  -- wonderful careers all.  Thank you for your contributions and dedication to IWU, the IWU program -- you have played the game the right way:   Victory with Honor!

Keep it rolling Titans . . . here comes March.

IWU'70

[Ultimate Titan Fan]

The crowd at Shirk was insane tonight. On senior night, it's not unusual for the football team to split at half-time--I hear they're very studious.  But they stayed the entire game this year at added pure electricity to the game.

[iwu70]

Yes, like up at Wheaton for the earlier game, the crowd and atmosphere tonight in The Shirk, was superb.  Almost a full house, very raucous and good, the football team singing the national anthem, then staying throughout.  The Titan Band is just fantastic, keeping all the breaks lively with great music, old favorites . . . always good to celebrate the Titan fight-song over and over, esp. after two wonderful wins!   Even folks around the outer ring, on the mezzanine level tonight . . .  and a great, loud crowd earlier too for the women's game, and our women giving them plenty to cheer about, playing really great team basketball, passing well, with smothering defense, and hitting at least nine treys.  Catie Eck was out of her mind, hitting five threes and making five blocks. 

A great day to be a Titan!

'70

[lmitzel]

NCC 68
Carroll 53

The Pios managed to keep this one fairly competitive on Senior Night, trailing just 31-27 at the break, but the Cardinals slowly pulled away enough to where they were able to get all four of their seniors in, including Hikaru Fukuda seeing his first career varsity action (he got the ball a couple times but didn't put up a shot.)

Matt Helwig: 21 pts, 7 reb
Ethan Helwig: 15 pts
Blaise Meredith: 14 pts, 6 reb

Aaron Wafford: 13 pts
Josh Hudgens: 10 pts, 5 reb
Paradisio Dante: 10 pts, 5 reb

(As I'm sure Greg can confirm: Paradisio Dante is an awesome name to announce.)

[iwu70]

One interesting aspect of the IWU-WC game tonight was the match-ups Ron Rose used on defense.  He had Luke Yoder guard Adom for much of the night and Yoder did a pretty good job on him.  Of course, Adom got his, many from the charity stripe, scoring 18, but Yoder did a pretty good job of staying in front of Adom.  Adom had 5 TOs too.  Lambesis got in early foul trouble guarding Cruickshank and had to sit for much of the first half.  Alioth was also in foul trouble and had to sit more than WC would have wished, I'm sure.  The poor % from three for WC was a big factor in this game. 

Now up to the Titans to press ahead and hold home court vs. NCC on Wednesday and go to Carver and get a tough win at Augie.  These will be tough games too, IMHO.

Leritz was awesome tonight, making his case for MOP for the regular season.

'70

[lmitzel]

And now to update this again.

y-	Illinois Wesleyan	12-2
x-	Wheaton	10-4
x-	Elmhurst	10-4
y-	North Central	10-5
x-	Millikin	8-6
	Augustana	6-9
	North Park	4-10
e-	Carthage	2-12
e-	Carroll	2-12

The Titans are all but locked into that top spot, needing only to win one of their final two, but I don't want to lock them into top two status since I'm not sure what tiebreakers would look like. (I think a three way tie favors Wheaton since they swept the Cardinals, while Elmhurst split, and the only way for this scenario to happen is if NCC pulls a Wednesday night upset.)

I think we can all but book a Millikin-NCC game in the CCIW Tournament in a week and a half; the Cardinals clinched a top four spot tonight, and Millikin appears to be locked into the 5 seed. It would take some craziness for North Central to move up.

Greg's right re: North Park. They'd need to win their final two and see Augie lose on Saturday to get in, so yeah, miracle covers it.

I'm tempted to do a Massey odds of winning thing to build out a seeding probability chart, but 128 possible combinations (since the Carroll-Carthage game on Wednesday means nothing for this) is a lot and I don't want to hurt my brain more than I have to. Worst case I'll probably build one for the final Saturday.

[Gregory Sager]

(As I'm sure Greg can confirm: Paradisio Dante is an awesome name to announce.)

My all-time-favorite CCIW name.

I just hope that his best friend's name is Virgil.

[Next Man Up]

NORTH CENTRAL RECRUIT

The Cardinals have received a commitment from 6'5" SG/PG Johnny Riva of LaSalle-Peru HS

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E2vNo23XMAQFG7s?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Gregory Sager]

Dan Carr of Augustana has collected 215 rebounds in CCIW play this season. That is a mind-blowing number. The last player to grab more boards in league play was Michael Harper, who seized 234 caroms in CCIW play in 1978, his sophomore season. In fact, to find the last player who had 200 or more rebounds in CCIW play, you have to go all the way back to Curtis Hudson (NCC) in 1988, when he collected 205.

This is not simply a phenomenon attached to the lowering of the league schedule to 14 games in 1992 and the raising back to 16 games in 2017, reflecting the presence, absence, and then presence again of Carroll as a CCIW member. The winning total of the 16-game CCIW rebounding championship has gone as low as 128 rebounds as recently as 2018, when Jordan Cunningham (MU) and Aston Francis (WC) shared the CCIW rebounding title. (Pause again in amazement at the fact that Aston Francis, a guard, was the CCIW's rebounding co-champion in 2019.)

Carr is having a truly remarkable season.

[lmitzel]

CCIW has preliminary info about the conference tournament up on their website.

I guess the part that's throwing me is that they've already predetermined the Friday matchups and that apparently whoever wins the 3/6 game will play the 2 seed, and the 4/5 winner plays the 1. I'd have assumed they'd do a lowest remaining/highest remaining thing.

[kiko]

the Cardinals slowly pulled away enough to where they were able to get all four of their seniors in, including Hikaru Fukuda seeing his first career varsity action

I've noted this name on the roster for the past few years since it is so unusual to have a player hailing from Japan.  Was wondering if he would get a chance to see some game action before year end as a reward for a lot of time invested in the program, and I'm glad to see Todd Raridon was able to make that happen.

[Next Man Up]

the Cardinals slowly pulled away enough to where they were able to get all four of their seniors in, including Hikaru Fukuda seeing his first career varsity action

I've noted this name on the roster for the past few years since it is so unusual to have a player hailing from Japan.  Was wondering if he would get a chance to see some game action before year end as a reward for a lot of time invested in the program, and I'm glad to see Todd Raridon was able to make that happen.

Hikaru is a great guy who is truly loved by his teammates. Came to the USA and NCC to major in Exercise Science. Don't know how much basketball he had played previously, if any, but he fell in love with the game and team.
Knowing, through open gym at the beginning of his first year that there was virtually no chance of his ever being a regular varsity team member, he nevertheless came out for the team and a place on the JV squad where he spent the entirety of his career before last night. Hikaru gave it his all in practice every day for four years, definitely earning his reward last night, which several NCC fans began calling for minutes earlier.
We're all familiar with the popular phrase that's particularly applicable to D3, he plays for the love of the game. Hikaru personified this principle to the max.

[Next Man Up]

And now to update this again.

y-	Illinois Wesleyan	12-2
x-	Wheaton	10-4
x-	Elmhurst	10-4
y-	North Central	10-5
x-	Millikin	8-6
	Augustana	6-9
	North Park	4-10
e-	Carthage	2-12
e-	Carroll	2-12

The Titans are all but locked into that top spot, needing only to win one of their final two, but I don't want to lock them into top two status since I'm not sure what tiebreakers would look like. (I think a three way tie favors Wheaton since they swept the Cardinals, while Elmhurst split, and the only way for this scenario to happen is if NCC pulls a Wednesday night upset.)

I think we can all but book a Millikin-NCC game in the CCIW Tournament in a week and a half; the Cardinals clinched a top four spot tonight, and Millikin appears to be locked into the 5 seed. It would take some craziness for North Central to move up.

Greg's right re: North Park. They'd need to win their final two and see Augie lose on Saturday to get in, so yeah, miracle covers it.

I'm tempted to do a Massey odds of winning thing to build out a seeding probability chart, but 128 possible combinations (since the Carroll-Carthage game on Wednesday means nothing for this) is a lot and I don't want to hurt my brain more than I have to. Worst case I'll probably build one for the final Saturday.

It seems the only question remaining is whether Augustana will be playing Wheaton or Elmhurst.